Star Wars: Skeleton Crew should be released as a movie instead of a Disney+ TV series (and Lucasfilm has done it before)

Whatever happened to Star Wars: Skeleton Crew?

Since it was first reported back in February 2022 under the codename 'Grammar Rodeo,' Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has been one of the most intriguing projects in Lucasfilm's modern era. In many ways, the little we know about it harkens back to the '80s era that Star Wars fans of a certain age fondly wish for again. (Calling it 'Goonies-esque' in its early promotional copy won over quite a few people who were born in the '70s and early '80s.)

But here now two years and some change later, Star Wars fans are left wondering whatever happened to the project. After all, it was known to have wrapped filming the same month The Acolyte began, and yet we're here now in July 2024 with The Acolyte more than halfway through on Disney+ and not even a peep about the show since in a year, even though they showed a Skeleton Crew trailer in May 2023 to fans at Star Wars Celebration.

So what's going on?

Speaking as someone with no inside information, but with 20 years of reporting and 20 additional years of Star Wars fandom under my proverbial Chewbacca bandolier, I wonder if something else is going on: What if Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is being re-cut and re-made into a movie?

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew recut into a movie would follow Disney's new strategy

The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau recruited Jon Watts to Star Wars way back in late 2020, during the filming of Spider-Man: No Way Home. At the time, Lucasfilm (as well as Marvel Studios and Pixar) were being encouraged by their parent company Disney to create original shows for the Disney+ streaming service.

But a lot of things can change in four years - and we've seen how another major project originally announced as Disney+ TV shows was switched into a movie, with Marvel Studios' Armor Wars as well as the fourth-season of The Mandalorian, which has been replaced on the schedule with 2026's The Mandalorian & Grogu movie. While in both those cases the cameras hadn't started rolling before the decision was made to switch formats, with Disney re-focusing Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm more towards movie theaters and less to Disney+ original TV shows, Skeleton Crew could be the skeleton key to get the new era of Star Wars movies started early.

Currently, Lucasfilm has no Star Wars movies announced until May 2026's The Mandalorian & Grogu - again originally conceived as The Mandalorian season 4. With Skeleton Crew already filmed, and an A-list director in the Spider-Man trilogy's Jon Watts attached... wouldn't you at least consider it?

Lucasfilm has recut a TV show into a movie before

While it's not a usual occurence, there've been several TV shows converted into movies - some before cameras began rolling, some only months after. In fact, Star Wars creator George Lucas did it 16 years ago with the Clone Wars animated movie.

"This is a movie but we started doing the episodes and some of the episodes are stand-alone and some are two, some are three, some are four, and there's no cliffhangers," Lucas said in 2008. "We looked at it on the big screen and it looked so beautiful and great that we said, 'Gee, we can make a feature just like this.' So we did and got all the people, got all the stuff and said, 'Let's make a feature.' So we did."

Disney has done this numerous times over the years, including iCarly: iGo to Japan and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew could still be a Disney+ Original

The silver lining in this all is that if Star Wars: Skeleton Crew TV show became Star Wars: Skeleton Crew the movie, Disney+ could still win.

Not only would the Star Wars: Skeleton Crew movie eventually end up on Disney+ (as do all Disney movies), there'd no doubt be extra scenes and intended scenes from the proverbial cutting room floor that could be released on Disney+ as an extended cut, or god forbid, a serialized movie - AKA a TV show.

Not done with Star Wars yet? Dive into the films and TV shows with our Star Wars watch order, or debate on which was the best with our ranked list of the best (and worst) Star Wars movies. And since it's now upon us, follow along with Popverse's coverage of The Acolyte.